In the late 1930s, my maternal great-grandmother lived in rural Mississippi with my great-grandfather. They married young and were poor and thus my great-grandmother was extremely frugal. While now people (including my family) are quick to replace tools before necessary, my great-grandmother held onto this set of measuring spoons in making all of her recipes, from corn fritters to hush puppies. When my great-grandfather got a better job and they moved up North to New Haven, Connecticut, she brought her measuring spoons with her. Even after they achieved a middle-class life, far from the poverty they endured in the South, my great-grandmother never bought another set of measuring spoons. When my grandmother (her daughter) got married in 1963, my great-grandmother passed on the measuring spoons to her. When my grandmother taught my mother to cook at an early age, she learned using these spoons. After my grandmother's death in 2010 when I was ten years old, the spoons became my mother's. For the past six years, I have used these measuring spoons almost everyday, from doling out almond butter for oatmeal to measuring baking powder to making my great-grandmother's original biscuit recipe. While one of the spoons recently wore down from so many years of use, the set serves as a reminder of my great-grandmother's frugality as a poor Southerner.

– Pazit Schrecker

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